Just a place for me to talk about my bookbinding and a little bit of everything

Last Sunday I packed up my two youngest and we hopped the ferry and headed to Discovery Bay. The three of us had a great time swimming and relaxing. My wonderful husband stayed home to do a little work and he followed us up on Tuesday.

This was the view I woke up to each morning.

Tuesday night Nelda arrived. She was one of my fantastic roomies from last year and we were excited to meet again.

Wednesday morning, my family headed home and the Artfest excitement was ready to explode. The rest of the roomies from last year (Kathy, Ellison, and Deena) and Deena’s mom Tressa showed up with enough time to throw their stuff in the time share and head over to Port Townsend and Artfest.

Artfest was everything I had hoped for.

I have been wanting to take a class from Keith Lo Bue and this was the year. It was more fantastic than I could have imagined. It was called Papering it Over and taught us some great techniques to adhere paper. I can’t wait to apply them to my artwork.

I also loved how he taught. He would teach us the techniques and then let us go play. Then teach more techniques and give us more play time. He would also wonder around to check on us and take time to help us out.

At the end of class he had us all take our projects to the front and it was amazing how everybody.

When I was packing for the class, I decide to bind a book to use for my canvas. Here is my finished project.

The picture on the front cover is of my 9 year old daughter Maren. The butterfly charm was from one of the trades I got. It was perfect since Maren loves butterflies.

The picture on the back is car obsessed 5 year old Stiles. He gets a key because of his love of cars.

The hearts on both covers were made by molding wire and covering it with paper.

Here is a spine view of the cover.

The other fabulous thing about Keith Lo Bue was how friendly he is. I saw him at vendor night and he said hi Becky. I wasn’t wearing my name tag and it was just nice that he took the time to remember my name and say hi.

My Friday class was with Pam Sussman. I took two of her classes last year so I really liked her as a teacher. I also got to sit next to Tressa, one of my roomies, which was great fun.

We made teeny tiny leather journals. They are so fun. I plan on hitting the leather store tomorrow. I am going to teach my daughter how to make them.

I was also thrilled to know that Pam was a vendor at vendor night. I made a bee line for her table and bought all of her book kits that I haven’t already done. I then went and got another roomie and took her over where she got a kit to make the little leather ones and spent the night teaching her how to make it. She did a fabulous job and it turned out great.

I added an image to one of mine using the glueing techniques from Keith Lo Bue’s class.

I wove the green leather one nice and loose so that you could see the orange one peeking out and did the other one really tight so you just saw the light tan. I am so excited to make more. I plan on making some smaller ones that I will turn into key chains.

Pam made my day, too. I walked in the door and she remembered my name from the year before. My dream trip is to attned her week long book seminar she offers.

You have to love Artfest teachers.

My last class was with Fred Mullet. It was a great class full of spritzing techniques, embossing techniques, and lots of great information.

The night before I had bought some fabulous metal covers from Pam Sussman. The metal had holes in it. During the early morning hours on the day I took Fred Mullet’s class I imagined my artwork from that class peeking from behind those covers, so I got up and bound the book. My idea worked.

I made this little journal that I learned last year from Pam. The ribbons are from my friend Miss Label. I have used others and the writing would rub off just handling it. I tried to make the writing come up on these and couldn’t.

The binding isn’t near as even as normal. That is what happens when you bind way too late, while you are talking and laughing way too hard.

It was such an incredible week. Thank you Teesha, Tracey and all the volunteers and teachers that make it such a great event.

In the last couple of years, I taught myself to knit. I love to knit socks. I decided that I needed a sock journal and who better to make it, but me. So I made myself one with a picture of a sock I knit.

sock journal

I love this sock. It was knit from a skein of goldfish sock yarn for a friend. I am so excited to have a skein of my own and can’t wait to knit myself a pair.